Wednesday, April 25, 2007

How the World Works - Salon.com: "The environmental impact of the solid-state revolution in lighting will be enormous. Look at a map of the world based on satellite photographs taken at night and you will see that light emissions from the United States, in particular the east coast of the country, are far higher than from anywhere else. Most of this light is still produced by antiquated Edison-style incandescents. If every American household were to install energy-efficient lights in five of their most frequently-used fixtures -- the kitchen ceiling light, living room table and floor lamps, bathroom vanity, and outdoor porch lamp -- the resultant drop in energy consumption would keep more than one trillion pounds of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. That is equivalent to eliminating the pollution caused by more than eight million cars for an entire year, a $6 billion dollar savings for householders equivalent to the annual output of more than twenty power stations."